Friday, September 29, 2006

With its high-profile XPS line and recent purchase of boutique gaming house Alienware, for awhile it looked like Dell would be the only major PC manufacturer willing to cater to serious gamers. Not anymore. In a move that caught everyone, including us, completely by surprise (you'll notice the lack of backlinks to any rumor posts about this), HP announced today that it will acquire Alienware rival VoodooPC for an undisclosed sum. After the deal closes -- following the usual regulatory rigmarole -- HP will form a new business unit dedicated to gaming in its Personal Systems Group, with Voodoo co-owners (and brothers) Rahul and Ravi Sood assuming the roles of Chief Technologist and Director of Strategy, respectively. As you're probably aware, the acquisition comes at somewhat of a turbulent time for HP: not only is the company still reeling from the bruising merger with Compaq under former CEO Carly Fiorina, it's currently undergoing unwanted public and governmental scrutiny over the so-called "pretexting" scandal that led to the recent resignation of chairwoman Patricia Dunn. Although we doubt that the Voodoo deal is going to make everyone forget about the alleged spying that has occurred, it's nice to know that once HP finally puts this ugly mess behind it, consumers (especially gamers) can expect to benefit from some hot products and lower pricing that can only be realized now that Dell has some real competition on its hands. [Warning: PDF link]

The batteries, used in Dynabook and Dynabook Satellite laptops manufactured between March and May this year, could fail on the road because of problems with storing and transmitting power, Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Ohmori said.

Ohmori declined to estimate the cost of the move, saying it would not affect earnings, and would not say whether Toshiba was asking Sony to foot the bill.

Toshiba said that the faulty batteries would not cause fires and that battery failure would occur "only in rare cases," but that the battery could fail regardless of how carefully it is used.

Last month Dell and Apple Computer recalled almost 6 million Sony-made notebook PC batteries saying they could produce smoke and catch fire.

Real's 'Rhapsody DNA' Puts Music Store on Sansa e200Topic: ThingsToday, Rhapsody announced a portable extension of the Sonos integration I mentioned here last week: it's called Rhapsody DNA, and Real hopes it will allow MP3 player manufacturers competing with Apple and Microsoft the sort of end-to-end seamless integration that the iPod already offers, and that the Zune should be offering soon.

Because Rhapsody DNA extends to the devices' firmware, it can extend store functionality onto the device itself.

The Sandisk Sansa e200 will be the first portable MP3 player developed with the Rhapsody DNA API, shipping this fall with a a full 32 hours of pre-loaded Rhapsody subscription tracks on it, hand-picked by Rhapsody's editors.

That's just to get you started. The really interesting stuff starts with the fact that if you subscribe, Rhapsody will automatically sync a number of constantly-updated channels onto the device automatically (with the user having full control over which ones sync, of course). This should let you tag songs from a large, passively-updating pool for individual acquisition, the way you can with Rhapsody/Sonos or should be able to with the the (Yahoo)/SiriusStiletto 100.

In fact, the Rhapsody/Sansa combination could end up feeling like an ad-free, perfect-reception version of the music stations on satellite radio -- possibly with cheaper prices than the Yahoo/Sirius (I still can't believe it) system will offer, depending on what the RIAA's lawyers insist on. Rhapsody hasn't announced further details about how much of its store will migrate to the Sansa e200, but from what it has already announced, music fans looking to evolve past the a la carte music purchasing model offered by iTunes will soon have another exciting option to consider.

Muslim political and religious leaders around the world have been reacting to a speech by Pope Benedict XVI in which he mentioned the Prophet Muhammad.

PAKISTANI PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF

Our strategy must clearly oppose the sinister tendencies to associate terrorism with Islam and discrimination against Muslims, which are giving rise to an ominous alienation between the west and the world of Islam.

MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER ABDULLAH AHMAD BADAWI

The Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that has been created. The Vatican must now take full responsibility over the matter and carry out the necessary steps to rectify the mistake.

EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER AHMED ABOUL GHEIT

This was a very unfortunate statement and it is a statement that shows that there is a lack of understanding of real Islam. And because of this we are hopeful that such statements and such positions would not be stated in order to not allow tension and distrust and recriminations to brew between the Muslim as well as the west.

PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER ISMAIL HANIYA

In the name of our Palestinian people... we express our condemnation of the statements of his Excellency the Pope, against Islam as a belief, Sharia, history, and a lifestyle.

PAKISTANI PARLIAMENT

The derogatory remarks of the Pope about the philosophy of jihad and Prophet Muhammad have injured sentiments across the Muslim world and pose the danger of spreading acrimony among the religions.

HAMID ANSARI, CHAIRMAN OF INDIA'S MINORITY COMMISSION

The language used by the Pope sounds like that of his 12th-Century counterpart who ordered the crusades... It surprises me because the Vatican has a very comprehensive relationship with the Muslim world".

DIN SYAMSUDDIN, HEAD OF MUHAMMADIYAH, INDONESIA'S SECOND LARGEST MUSLIM ORGANISATION

The Pope's statements reflect his lack of wisdom. It is obvious from the statements that the Pope doesn't have a correct understanding of Islam.

AHMAD KHATAMI, IRANIAN CLERIC

It is unfortunate to see that the leader of the world's Christians is so ill-informed about Islam and speaks so shamelessly.

Muslims around the world would surely react to such weak arguments and will invite those who misunderstand Islam to learn about the religion. We say that such insults will spread the influence of Islam further.

MOHAMMED MAHDA AKEF, EGYPTIAN MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

The remarks do not express correct understanding of Islam and are merely wrong and distorted beliefs being repeated in the West.

Our hands are outstretched and our religion calls for peace, not for war, for love not for hatred, for tolerance, not for fanaticism, for knowing each other and not for disavowing each other.

We condemn this and we want to know the explanation of this and what is intended by this. We call on the pope, the pontiff, to apologise to the Islamic nation because he has insulted its religion and Prophet, its faith and Sharia without any justification."

ALI BARDAKOGLU, SENIOR TURKISH MUSLIM

I do not see any use in somebody visiting the Islamic world who thinks in this way about the holy prophet of Islam. He should first rid himself of feelings of hate.

SALIH KAPUSUZ, DEPUTY LEADER OF TURKEY'S RULING AK PARTY

The owner of those unfortunate and arrogant comments, Benedict XVI, has gone down in history, but in the same category as Hitler and Mussolini.

He seems to have a mindset that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world. It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades.

We do not accept the apology through Vatican channels... and ask him to offer a personal apology - not through his officials - to Muslims for this false reading

ORGANISATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE STATEMENT

The OIC hopes that this sudden campaign does not reflect a new trend for the Vatican policy toward the Islamic religion ... and it expects the Vatican to express its real vision of Islam.

DR MUHAMMAD ABDUL BARI, MUSLIM COUNCIL OF BRITAIN

One would expect a religious leader such as the Pope to act and speak with responsibility and repudiate the Byzantine emperor's views in the interests of truth and harmonious relations. Regrettably, the Pope did not do so and this has understandably caused a lot of dismay and hurt.